Highway-masker



F. W. HOCKADAY.

HIGHWAY MARKER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 191a.

Patented Jan. 6, 1920.

nmTnn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK W. HOCKADAY, 0F WICHITA, KANSAS.

HIGHWAY-MARKER.

Appl cation filed June 1, 1918.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK W. HOOKADAY, a citizen of the United States, residing at 'Wichita, in the county of Sedgwick and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Highway- Markers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to highway markers of that type designed to indicate the status or character of one or more roads adjacent which the marker is positioned, and to give further information such for example as the relative size of towns or cities to which the road or roads lead. Prior to the present invention, it has been customary, so far as I am aware, for detailed information to be painted or otherwise marked upon a sign board or the like to be read by motor ists or others traveling over the road or roads adjacent which the marker or markers are located. However, unless such sign boards are of considerable size and the wording thereon is printed in large type, they are of practically no benefit unless the motorist slows down or stops to read the instructions. The primary object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a marking system and a marker which by reason of an arbitrary arrangement of one or more symbols thereon, will give to the motorist the desired information, and as in the instance of the present invention a single symbol or two or three symbols will be sufiicient to convey the full information required, it is evident that they may be so plainly painted or otherwise depicted upon the face of the marker as to render them readily perceptible from a distance in daylight and equally as perceptible at night when illuminated by the lights from the automobile approaching the same. Obviously, therefore, the marker embodying the present invention possesses marked advantages over a marker bearing printed matter as it is wholly unnecessary for a motorist to slow down the machine or stop in order to receive the information desired.

The invention also has as its object to disclose a novel system to be followed in producing markers for use under different conditions so that being familiar with the system and knowing the conditions under which the marker is to be employed, it is a Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 6, 1920.

Serial no. 237,783.

simple matter to paint or otherwise depict upon the face of the marker the arrangement of symbols required to indicate the said conditions.

The invention has as a further object to provide a marker which will greatly facilitate travel over roads which intersect other roads or which have branch roads or are in themselves branches of a main road, in the respect that through the marker embodying the present invention, the driver of an automobile approaching a crossroad or a branch in the road may determine, sometime in advance of reaching the crossroad or branch whether or not he is required to make the turn, and if so in what direction.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure l is a perspective view illustrating in a general way the manner in which several markers embodying the invention are to be arranged with relation to intersecting or cross-roads Fig. 2 is a view in elevation of one of the markers;

Fig. 3 is a similar view of another type of marker;

Fig. l is a similar view illustrating still another type of marker.

Briefly stated the marker of the present invention comprises a sign board which may be mounted upon a suitable supporting post or upright, upon a telegraph pole, or 1n any other suitable manner and which has painted or otherwise depicted upon its face one or more symbols arranged in accordance with the system to be hereinafter de scribed. It will be understood, however, that the symbols may appear upon the face of a post and in fact that they may be arranged upon the face of any object of suitable size and suitably positioned or capable of being suitably positioned. However, the symbols are intended to be arranged within a certain definite field or upon a well defined background painted white for example, the symbols themselves being painted some other distinguishing color, as for example black or red.

In the drawings, the marker is illustrated as is the nature of a sign board indicated in general by the numeral 1, and mounted upon a suitable. post 52, which post is to be set in the ground beside the roadway and field may be of any other marginal contour and, of course, of any size.

The symbol employed in following the system of the present invention is preferably an arrow and, as before stated, one or more of these symbols may be depicted within the field of the marker. In the specific example illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawings, the numeral 3 indicates an arrow of relatively large size which is so arranged .within the field of the marker as to point toward the upper edge of the field. Where a relatively large arrow is depicted within the'field, it indicates that the road to which it bears relation leads to or passes through a large town or city and the relative size of the arrow will preferably be proportionate to the size of the town or city. Thus in the instance of the arrow 3 in Fig. 2 one approaching the marker along, for example, the main road indicated by the numeral 4 in Fig. 1 of the drawings, will know that by traveling straight ahead a large town or city will be reached. In the illustrated example the field of the marker also has located within it arrows 5 and 6, the stems of thearrows meeting and the arrows pointing respectively toward the right and toward the left and, consequently, toward the corresponding margins of the said field. In the illustration the arrow 5 is relatively large and the arrow 6 is relatively small, and if this particular type of marker is located at the righthand side of the road 4 traveling in the direction indicated by the arrow designated by the reference letter E in Fig. 1, it will indicate that the information will be that by proceeding along the road 4 in the direction of the said arrow E, alarge city or town will be reached or if a turn is made to the right at the intersection of the road 4 with the road, which is indicated by the numeral 7 another large town or city will he reached. On the other hand if aturn is made to the left, or in other words, the direction indicatedby the smaller arrow 6, a small town or small city will be reached. In like manner the relative size of the arrows 3, 5 and 6 may indicate, due to their relative size, the relative importance of the road in the direction in which they pointso that one approaching this particular marker will understand that the road pointedout by the arrow 3 is, or will lead to a main road; that the road pointed out by the arrow 5 is or will lead to another main road; and, that the road pointed out by the smaller arrow 6 is either a branch road or a road otherwise of less importance. One of the markers illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawings and indicated by the numeral 8 would, of course, be identical with the marker shown in Fig. 2 under the conditions heretofore described, and it will be observed that another one of the markers shown in the said figure and indicated by the numeral 9 has the positions of its arrows 5 and 6 reversed from that shown in Fig. 2 so that in each instance the smaller arrows would point in the same direction and the larger arrows corresponding to the arrow 5 in Fig. 2 would likewise point in the same or a common direction. Another marker illustrated in Fig. 1 and indicated by the numeral 10 has all three arrows, corresponding to the arrows 3, 5 and 6 in Fig. 2, substantially of the same size, which arrangement is, of course, in accordance with the arrangement shown in the instance of the marker 9 and the marker shown in Fig. 2, inasmuch as the marker 10 would be approached by a person traveling along the road pointed out by the arrow 6 in the instance of the markers 8 and 9.

Another arrangement of symbols is illustrated in Fig. 8 of the drawings, the marker in this figure being indicated by the numeral 11 and bearing within its field two arrows, one indicated by the numeral 12 and the other by the numeral 13. The arrow 12 points toward the right and is a relatively large size, whereas the arrow 13 points toward the upper edge of the field, or in other words, straight ahead, and is relatively small in size. This relative proportioning of the symbols l2 and 13 and their arrangement will, therefore, indicate that the road pointed out by the arrow 13 and along which the person is traveling who approaches the said marker 11, does not lead to a main road and leads only to a small town or small city, whereas on the other hand the arrow 12 gives the information that if the person turns to the right he will pass on to a main road or a road leading to a main road and which road will lead to a large town or city.

The marker illustrated in Fig. 4 of the drawings is indicated by the numeral ll and also bears two arrows. but in this instance one of the arrows, which is relatively small and is indicated by the numeral 15, points toward the left, and the other arrow indicated by the nun'ieral 16 points toward the upper edge of the field, or in other words straight ahead, and is of relatively large size. This marker indicates, therefore, that the one approaching the same is traveling upon a main road or a road leading directly earner thereto and by which road a large town or city may be reached, and that if he should turn to the left he will pass on to a road of less importance which will not lead to a main road and which will lead only to a small town or small city.

From the foregoing description of the invention it will be understood that by the system set forth, the selected symbols may be so arranged upon the face of the marker as to immediately give information to one approaching the marker concerning both the relative importance of the road strcight ahead or the intersecting road or roads and the relative sizes of the towns or cities to be reached by traveling over any of the roads pointed out. The symbols, as before stated, will be painted or otherwise depicted in a distinguishing color such as black or red, so that they will appear distinct against the white field or backgroimd of the marker and may, therefore, be readily seen from a distance even though the field of the marker he relatively small.

In practice, the markers of the present invention will be placed fifty yards more or less from the branch or crossroads in connection with which they are to be employed, and as will be understood from the foregoing description of the invention, the markers are intended to indicate to the driver of a machine the approach to an important road branch or cross-road, and if the driver has in mind a general idea of his destination he may travel practically solely by the assist ance of the markers. For example, where a main highway continues for a distance of forty miles or so and there are many small towns which may be reached by branch roads from the highway, and where the driver of a machine has as his destination a large city or town at the end of the highway, he will, of course, follow the direction indicated by the larger arrows. At the juncture of branch roads or the intersection of crossroads with the main highway it will be customary, as is now frequently done, to place a sign board, which sign board will contain the name or names of the town or towns to be reached by traveling over the branch road or cross-road. As the character of these information signs is well-known it is not thought necessary to illustrate the same in the drawings, but where they are employed, the smaller arrows upon the markers present decided advantages inas much as if a traveler over the highway wishes to reach a small town which he knows is at the right of the highway, he is not required to slow up or stop his machine at any marker which shows a small arrow pointing to the left, but when he reaches a marker bearing a small arrow pointing to the right he will slow up at the neXt information sign and can, by inspecting the same, determine whether or not the town he wishes to reach is on the branch or crossroad.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. The system of marking meeting highways which comprises the use of indicating symbols of different sizes, locating adjacent the highway to be marked and at a point relatively remote from the meeting point of the other highways with the first mentioned highway, a plurality of such symbols being relatively arranged to point in the respective directions to indicate the respective highways to which they bear relation and proportioning the size of the symbols in accord ance with the relative importance of the respective highways.

E2. The system of marking meeting highways which consists in arranging, adjacent a highway at a point relatively remote from the meeting point of said highway with another highway or highways, symbols individual to the highways, arranging said symbole to point in directions indicating their respective highways, and proportioning the symbols as to size to indicate the relative importance of the respective highways.

The system of marking meeting highways which consists in arranging, adjacent a highway at a point relatively remote from and in advance of its meeting point with another highway or highways, a plane surface bearing upon its face symbols individual to the highways and pointing in directions to indicate the respective highways to which they bear relation, andwhich symbols are proportioned as to size to indicate the relative importance of the respective highways.

4. A marker for meeting highways designed to apprise a person, traveling upon said highway and approaching the marker, of the relative importance of the said highway and the highway or highways meeting the same, and the general direction of eX- tent of said highways, the said marker comprising a plurality of symbols extending in different directions to individually indicate the highways, the symbols being proportioned as to size to indicate the relative importance of the highways.

5. A marker for meeting highways de signed to apprise a person, traveling upon said highway and approaching the marker, of the relative importance of the said highway and the highway or highways meeting the same, and the general direction of extent of said highways, the said marker comprising a plurality of symbols located in a common plane and extending in different directions to individually indicate the highways, the symbols being proportioned as to size to indicate the relative importance of the highways.

'6. A marker for "meeting highways decommon plane andpointing in different disigned to apprise a person, traveling upon rections to individually indicate the high- 10 said highway and approaching the marker, ways, the arrows being proportioned as to of the relative importance of the said highsize to indicate the relative importance of 5 Way and the highway or highways meeting the highways.

the same, and the general direction of ex- In testimony whereof I affix my signature. tent of said highways, the said marker OOH)- prising a plurality of arrows located in a FRANK W. HOCKADAY. [1,. s] 

